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When I swapped to Friday this week I expected a nice Phi puzzle, instead I got Nimrod! A little more difficult than Phi for me with some clues still a mystery. However, much of it was straightforward thanks to the long anagram and me seeing 1dn as soon as I had P-D… A couple of the clues are gems.

Across

1

PETER CROUCH — PETER + CROUCH — the Liverpool and England striker is very tall, for a footballer.

9

NADIR — (AND)* + IR — IR = Inland Revenue. Although they have now changed their name I expect we’ll have IR in crosswords for decades to come.

10

GLISSANDI — (sc)A(le) in (SLIDINGS)* — really nice &lit.

11

TRILOBITE — OBIT in T+RILE — a trilobite is an early jointed animal found in the fossil record.

12

THYMI — healTHY-MIndedness — as a vegetarian sweetbread is a weird term. It refers, I think, to the various glands that can be eaten by those willing to do so. The thymus is one such gland and its role gives this clue a nice partial &lit surface.

13

DOGE — ? — I don’t see the word play here, some reversal of GOD?
[ It’s EGO’D <]

14

MENTAL NOTE — cryptic def. — ref. to Post-It notes. Having worked in a Centre for Cognitive Science I like the surface but doubt the subject would warrant a whole Faculty!

16

EGO-TRIPPER — ‘E GOT RIPPER — fantastic clue.

19

KNEW — K+NEW

20

TIGON — GO in TIN — preserved = put in TIN.

21

NUMBER OFF — MBE in (FOR FUN)*

23

NEEDINESS — (SEES END IN)* — not sure about supply as the anagramming term here.

PADDINGTON GREEN — ADDING TONG in PREEN — an excellent clue but you have to know about the police station (nick) in London. It gets mentioned on the news a bit as high profile suspects are often taken there. Tong is a Chinese secret society.

2

TORSO — T + OR SO — roughly = or so.

3

RAGTIME — RAG+TIME

4

RAIMENT — AIM iN RENT

5

UNSETTLE — (LUNETTES)*

6

HONEYMOON COUPLE — cryptic def.

7,8

UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL — (assumptio)N in (WEDS DWELT + INDIVIDUAL DEFEAT)* — good anagram &lit but fairly obvious from the enumeration.

15

FRONTIER — FR+ON+TIER

17

PINKEYE — KEY in PINE

18

EN MASSE — S(hip) in (SEAMEN)*

22

EXPAT — (X in TAPE)< — I think X = “and” here.
[ It’s X = “by”, and is just connecting the two uses of over.]

This entry was posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 4:49 pm and is filed under Independent.
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